Things I love...

Babies who love books,
Dads who read books to their kids, and
when a baby backs up into your lap to read. Grant picks a book and backs up into our laps a lot now and I think it is just too cute.

 

Yea! Another preschool begins!

We just started a new school in Farmville! We are thankful that we have friends to do this with! We started here 2 weeks ago and learned about S for snow, circles, white, and zero. We made snowflakes, painted snowy scenes, read snowy books, sewed sewing card snowballs, ate snowflake pancakes and carrot noses, played with playdough, dressed up like snowmen, made snowangels, had snowball fights, and more! All in two sessions! It was fun! I really do like teaching preschool here and Christian certainly loves seeing friends on a normal basis and learning again. Here are bunch of pictures from the week in no particular order.(I'm having a hard time with my drafts not showing the picture, but just the codes.)More preschool entries to come!

 

 

 

 

Have you heard the buzz on V's latest report?

Victoria had to do a report on any animal and she chose to do a bee. We did some research on honey bees and then made a 3D replica using supplies we had on hand. It turned out to be pretty cool. She did a great job! I loved her idea to use Easter eggs. Danny did a great job drilling little holes in the eggs and V did a good job connecting the parts, adding legs, antennae, eyes, and stripes. If you want to know about a honey bees body, just ask V. She now knows a lot!

 

 

Grant's looking older!

And more boyish according to Danny. So, I did not have a problem with Grant's darling baby hairdo. However, he was mistaken for a girl a couple times(by old ladies and when he was wearing completely male clothing might I add), so Danny wanted to cut his hair. So, here he is with his cute little baby mullet....

 

 

Here he is having his first haircut! Thanks Dad for being such a good barber!
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And here he is running away from the barber chair sporting his new shorter hairdo.


He looks every bit as cute as before. We'll have front view pictures in other upcoming posts, I promise!

Budding artist

Unbelievably, this child rarely picked up a crayon or marker prior to this time last year. Now look at what he can do! Thank goodness for his goal to draw a person last year. Just a little sample that he colored today.

 

 

Our family on a pirate ship. Christian is the one with the captain's hat. Victoria is the one sitting under the orange table, and Grant is the one atop the mast looking through the telescope.

100 curls...

for the hundredth day of school. Victoria said that it was going to be the 100th day of school today, so she wanted to do something special. I guess a lot of the kids make a cheerio necklace with 100 cheerios or bits of straw, or a t-shirt that says 100 or something. So, Victoria had the idea to wear 100 curls. She's so funny. So, here she is with her 100 curls! Honestly 100- 33 curlers, each but one divided into 3, the last into 4. This is what she looked like this morning! Curly Sue!

 

She thought it was great, her 2 teachers both took pictures, and another student thought she was a new student. She really does look different. Her hair looks darker for some reason too. I just love V and her fun ideas.

Christian- pretty into Legos these days.

 

Kitchen updated!

So, at the beginning of January we updated our kitchen.

This picture was taken when we were looking at the house and considering buying it. The cupboards were cool, but the wallpaper was not. So, we stripped it.

 

 

Underneath it was pretty nasty, so we had to scrub and soak and scrape.

 

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But after the prep work was done it was time to paint! It didn't turn out to be the exact color I wanted, but it still looks a lot better than outdated wallpaper, don't you think?

Christmas Eve

So, further evidence that we are crazy... we wait until Christmas Eve to visit Santa! But at least we got to see the "real Legendary Santa" at the children's museum.

We got to see him come down the chimney.

We visited with the snow queen.

Then, Santa called us over and talked to the kids about what they wanted. Christian again changed his requests a little, but V stuck with what her letter said. Grant basically just cried, but he's been good most of the year so I think it'll be ok.

Next, we went to Christmas Eve dinner at the Marshalls. It was fun and delicious! Here are a few pictures of the gang.

The kids table! I feel like I just graduated from the kids table myself now I have kids there.

Here we are looking sophisticated.

And here we are looking anything but sophisticated. That's why we call it the "crazy picture!"

After the time with family we drove back to Farmville and got ready for bed. We put out cookies and milk for Santa.

(this is such a true look at the family- V doing the right thing and posing for the camera, Christian hiding in a blanket reason not remembered at the time, and Grant trying to run away with the sweets.)

We hung our stockings by the chimney with care, (right, like they weren't already hanging there...)

We put out the reindeer food.

Great job Grant!
And great job V and C. They had a fun idea to pour it down a chute like at the zoo. So, down a paper towel roll the sparkly oats go!

We read books, talked about the true meaning of Christmas, and nestled the children "all snug in their beds."

Anniversary at the zoo?

Ok, so that title could have lots of meanings in our crazy family. But, this year Danny and I did spend a portion of our 9th anniversary at the literal zoo.

Danny and I were able to spend the day together while my parents watched the kids. They did crafts and treats and just played while we had our date. I wasn't there, so I didn't take any pictures of what they worked on, but here is something we brought home.

A delicious sugar cookie Christmas tree! Wow, good job guys. Very cool.

So, for our date, Danny and I had fun rummaging around the Goodwill outlet. We found a pretty plate, a silver bowl, a cast iron skillet, some picture frames, a sweater and a pair of jeans for me, a skirt and some shorts for V, some snow pants for a future year, two Disney movies, and a sleeper sofa. All for under 30 dollars. We both love to bargain shop! We also went to a few other stores running last minute errands. Then we went to dinner at P.F. Changs. It was delicious! We had a great time driving around, shopping, dining, and talking together and being alone for a while. We really value uninterrupted time together.

So, thanks mom and dad for watching the kids. Then, we met up with them and the kids to see the Miracle of Christmas Live at the zoo. We have gone to this or been involved with this for 6 years and it always falls on the 21-23 of Dec. So, sometimes it just happens to land on our anniversary. It's just a busy week.

It was pretty freezing, but the kids loved the zoo train shuttle.

We were glad to see some of our friends, the Greenes, in the show.

It is really neat to see the Nativity with real animals and a real baby too.

Gingerbread with friends

The kids had fun making gingerbread houses out of Graham crackers and milk cartons at our new friends' house. The Ludgates invited us and a few other friends over for a fun festive morning. We are so thankful to have made some great friends already! Victoria and Autumn, the one on the far right have become quick friends. They are the same age and in Primary together. Christian really likes her brother,Mason, and sister, Juniper, and his new friend Dennis Livingston. He was there too, but not in the picture. I'm sure he'll be in some upcoming posts. Grant has a little friend, Emery, too. Thanks new friends for making us feel welcome around here!

Christian didn't want straight walls, he liked the mosaic look. How delicious!